Ramati

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Ramadi is a Gurung village situated at Ward No. 7 of Deurali VDC, Kaski, Nepal. It is 35 Km far east away from the famous city Pokhara which is a head quarter of Gandaki zone. It is about at the altitude of 1400 meter height from the sea level. There are Margyangkot ward no 8 of Deurali VDC in the north, Margyangkot Basaula ward no 9 & ward No 1 of Deurali VDC in the west, Maunwan Danda, Sidhha VDC in the east & Thaprek VDC in the south of Ramadi Village. You can see the clearly the range of Mt. Annapurna, Mt. Fishtail(6,993 m), Mt. Himchuli, Mt. Manaslu, Phewa Lake(a famous lake of Pokhara), Seti river, Mandi river & panoramic view of various villages which covered the mountains.

How to reach there?

There are mainly three routes to reach Ramadi:
1. Pokhara - Sishuwa - Raja Chautara - Phedi - Ramadi
2. Pokhara - Sishuwa - Raja Chautara - Phedi - Deurali - Ramadi
3. Pokhara - Kotre, Tanahun - Katipipal(Tanaun) - Ramadi

Off course, the first route is being used by the local people & tourists to be there since there is transportation facility to reach. Bus of Begnas Taal Bus Committee has been providing the transportation service from Pokhara to Ramadi since 2001. The second route is being used if the bus is not available or missed the bus. People can reach at Phedi by the bus then climb up on foot for an hour. The third route is generally used by those people who feel easy by catching the Mini bus that goes to Thaprek, Thanti Bhangyang, Tanahun, has to get off at Katipipal. It takes about 20 minutes time to reach Ramadi.


Cultures & Other Attractions:-

The people of the village believe in Bonism as religion. There are four clans of Gurung people have been living in the village. They are: Pahchyu, Kohla, Mru & Kromchhai Tamus. People of this village celebrates all the festivals which are celebrated by the Tamumain(Gurungs) are as follows:

• Tamu Lhosar(New Year)
• Mange Shakranti
• Phagu Purnima
• Tohnten
• Third Tuesday of Chaitra
• Baisakh Purnima
• Saune Shakranti
• Third Tuesday of Shawan
• Kartik Purnima

Cultural Dances:

 Dohori songs
 Ghanto Dance
 Sorathi Dance
 Maruni Dance
 Chudka Dance

Tamu Lhosar/Puspandra:

The Tamu Lhochchar is the New Year for the Gurungs and it is celebrated by Tamus on every 15 Poush of Nepali calendar which falls on/around 30 December of the English calendar. It is associated with the natural phenomena and the morning sunrise on of 15th Poush is the New Year.

It marks the beginning of the Tamu Sambat or Gurung Calendar year. Lhochchar also heralds the change in ‘Lho’. Gurungs divide time into cycles of twelve years (lohokor), to each year of which a special name is given, which is known as barga (lho). According to the oriental astrological system, there are 12 Lhos – garuda, serpent, horse sheep, monkey, bird, dog, deer, mouse, cow, tiger, and cat. So therefore, each year is marked by a particular animal and they are arranged in a single circle, following closely the Tibetan calendar with 12 animals. However, these animals may vary in the Tibetan Lhosar and Chinese New Year . The Lho returns after the twelve-year cycle. By knowing a man’s barga, his age can readily be calculated.

Poush 15 heralds the end of the winter and start of the spring and traditionally it is celebrated by having ‘ban bhoj’ (‘shyo kain’ in Tamu), merry-making with, songs and dances and playing traditional games. These days, especially in major cities, all the Gurungs come together at a common place and celebrate the event by having various cultural procession, cultural programmes and feasts.

Toho Tehn:

The Toho Tehn festival takes place three times on Sundays in the month of Chaitra (March-April) and Shrawan (July-August). During these three days of holiday, people endeavor to chase away the evil spirits, carriers of sickness, from the village. When night has fallen, a group of boys between 11and 16 sacrifices a chicken and go successively into each Gurung house in the village with incense in a bowl. The children walk through the village making a deafening noise with drums, cymbals and bells, etc. to chase away the bad spirits who social evils, natural calamities, sicknesses and cultural erosion.

Sildo Thi-Ba (Sildo or Sildo-Naldo):

Sildo thiba is basically the worshipping of natural deities and to show respect and honor towards gods and spirits that protect the village. The name sildo-naldo could be analysed in the following way: ‘si’ means ‘rice grain’; ‘na’ means ‘rain’; and ldo is the verb ‘to do’ (la-ba). Sildo-naldo thus means the divinity that ‘made the grain and the rain’. It is done five times in a year in Chaitra, Jesth, Bhadra, Asoj and Kartik, on a Tuesday nearest to the fullest moon. A Gurung priest (pachyu) performs the prayers in front of an altar and asks the sildo-naldo to protect the village. Ten cones of rice are made, out of which one of the largest symbolises sildo-naldo. Offering is made in grains and an animal sacrificed at the end after the prayer.

Gurungs worship many gods, goddesses, as well as their divine ancestors (pitree and kul). Hindu deities are also included in their pantheon. The pachyu, gyabre as well as lama are used for religious rites and rituals.

Ghanto Dance:

The Ghanto nach or dance festival takes place in the month of Magh Panchami in Magh (towards end of January) and ends on Baisakh purnima which falls around the end of April or beginning of May. This final performance lasts from morning to evening for three days. Not a single episode must be omitted; if a mistake is made it is believed that the dancing girls will become sick and may die.

Young girls around the ages of 12 (pre-pubertal) perform the ghanto and are called ghansaris or ghatonis. They wear typical ghanto dress comprising of traditional Gurung dress, jewellery and special headgears. They dance trance-like and it is extremely graceful, twisting, rising, and sinking and then turning in a squatting position with the hands just touching the ground, with eyes closed, in a story that is sung by a group of men, a slow chant to the rhythm of a double-ended drum. The language of the ghanto chant does not appear to be either modern Gurung or Nepali, perhaps archaic Nepali. It is even unintelligible even to the ghanto gurus who can only say what each part is about generally.

The story tells a long story of a legendary King Parsuram and his queen, various events in their lives including the death of the king and the immolation (sati) of his queen and her subsequent return to life. This is the most important part of the ghanto. It is said that if a ghansari cannot be resurrected after she swoons when the part about the self immolation is sung, then she is liable to die. The rest of the story depicts a long and eventually successful hunting venture followed by a gambling spree.
There are three types of ghanto dances that are performed are the sati, baramasye & Kusunda ghanto. The former is performed at a fixed time as described above, whereas baramasye can be performed at any time and is not rigid following strict adherence as the sati ghanto dance.

A distinctive Gurung institution, ghanto is fading away, as the old men who sung the songs die; young girls have less time from their school work; and the rich soldiers who paid for performances no longer come to the village. Yet, one can still find ghanto being performed in Kaski,Lamjung and Gorkha districts.

Sorathi Dance:

A sorathi dance is a typical Gurung dance which is a re-enactment of an ancient legend about a king who had 7 wives and no children. It relates the story of the youngest queen who at last bears a daughter and the other queens out of jealousy hatch a plan to murder the child. The child is thrown into the river but gets saved by a fisherman who rears the child as his own. At the end, the plot is revealed and the mother and daughter are reunited while the guilty ones are punished. This dance is held for sixteen days and falls between Dasain and Tihar.

Maruni Dance:

Maruni dance is one of the traditional dances of Gurungs performed in the month of Shrawan (July-August) and lasts up to month of Poush (December-January). Various Hindu male and female deities are worshipped and offered ten varieties of flowers, among which, one kind of the flower is set aside for Goddess Saraswati of arts and learning. At the end of the dance, the flower is offered to the Goddess and tika and presumes to receive blessings from her. The dancers’ bodies move in a peculiar but yet exhilarating grace in their own traditional costumes, the rest of them play mandal (drums) and sing in high falsettos arousing feelings from everyone present there to watch the dance. The dance is near to extinction and efforts are being made to revive and preserve it, especially by the Ghale Gurungs from Barpak of Gorkha.

Generally Gurungs enjoy merry making and usually such socio-cultural-religious functions provide opportunity for entertainment and interactions among all the villagers of all ages. They especially serve as meeting points for the young Gurung youth as some of these functions take the shape of melas/fairs lasting from a day to several days. The young people interact freely and get to know each other, enjoy each other’s company and also choose their life partners. Sometimes love affairs may result from such encounters.

Chudka Dance:

The Chudka Dance is another typical cultural dance which have been performing in the Gurung villages & Magar villages in different places of Nepal. Group of men sing a song with playing Khainjandi(a typical musical instrument) while as group of young girls dance twisting with the rythms khainjadi & songs. Generally, this dance starts from Phagu Purnima in the 2nd week of March.


Dohori Songs:

Gurungs are traditionally well known for their humour, valour and singing and dances and therefore fond of merry making and enjoyment. Singing of Dohori geet (song) are very poplar among the Gurungs. It is a folk tune sung in duet between males and females at fairs and festivals, either as part of competition or just as a form of entertainment. In the earlier days in the villages, it used to can carry on days on end if the competition did not end and when it ended, the loser had to surrender one self to the winner. But these days, this custom is not practiced but singing of dohori geet is still very popular among the Gurungs, accompanied by dances. It has been so widely promoted that these days that dohori songs are sung in a commercial environment in restaurants and hotels. This negative practice has damaged the image of the Gurungs along with its traditional costumes.